Steering Wheel
by XxxXGreek GeekXxxX
Summary: Post MoA. Leo Valdez is having a difficult time after The Seven save Percy and Annabeth. He's convinced that he is useless and unimportant, especially because he is the seventh wheel. Can a certain Son of Poseidon change that? Rated T because little kids wouldn't understand and I'm paranoid. Oneshot! Complete!


**Hey! I love Percy and Leo as, like, a bromance, and there aren't enough of these. So… yeah… This is very different from my first one shot. Read on!**

**I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING.**** THIS HAS BEEN CLARIFIED BEFORE.**

Steering Wheel

Leo Valdez still felt guilty. Very guilty.

Sure, Percy and Annabeth had popped out of Tartarus safe and sound, nothing too bad, and nothing too visible seemed to show. But he was sure he had caused that fall in the first place.

Because he was useless and bad luck, he told himself.

Now here he was, quietly petting Festus, pondering his uselessness. Alone. At the dead of night.

"What use am I?" he shouted at the sky angrily. Well, he shouted as loud as he could; he didn't want to wake the others.

Leo was surprised when he got an answer to his rhetorical question. "You're very useful, Leo, and important."

Leo looked up to see the almighty Son of the Sea God, Percy Jackson, one of the two very people he nearly killed. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I'm not important. I'm the seventh wheel. Nemesis told me that. You wanna know why? Because I'm not important."

Percy stared at him quizzically. "Now why would being the seventh wheel make you any less important?"

Leo gawked at Percy. What didn't make sense about that? "Let me tell a demonstration, okay? There's this car, and it's heavy. In order to stay up, drive, there needs to be six wheels on the bottom. Not seven, six. But there is a seventh wheel kept, just in case, in the trunk. When a wheel pops, that seventh wheel is placed in its place. But would you look at that? Right after that popped wheel is replaced, a new one is bought."

Leo paused. "I'll only ever be important for a short amount of time. Then I'll be back in the truck, kept around just in case."

Percy leaned forward, very close to Leo. His green eyes, which looked as if they were glowing in the moonlight, searched Leo's brown ones, the ones that now looked very dull. "You're forgetting one."

Leo blinked unknowingly at Percy. Then he grew angry. "No I'm not! There are seven wheels, three on either side and one in the back! I didn't forget a wheel, because there aren't anymore!"

"Yes, there is," Percy insisted.

"Then what wheel?" Leo asked, ready to watch a blushing Percy suddenly _disappear_.

But that didn't happen. Percy actually had an answer. "There is one more wheel, and it's just as important, maybe even more so." Leo watched Percy carefully. "Leo, you forgot the steering wheel."

Leo was dumfounded. Did that even count, the steering wheel? It does have the word 'wheel' in it, but… He was so confused now.

Percy seemed to notice this and forged on. "Leo, think about it. Without you, we wouldn't be able to fly this ship. Heck, there wouldn't be an _Argo ll_ to _fly_ without you." Percy poked Leo in the chest. "And if you're not the steering wheel—which I highly doubt—you'd be one of the six on the bottom."

"But Nemesis said—"

"—that you were a seventh wheel, which means you aren't thought of as much, right? Well, how many people think about the steering wheel as a wheel, huh? And, since I'm on a roll, I'll say this: You're not unlucky. You steer us in a direction. Sometimes it's not the right direction, but you'll always steer us right back."

Leo couldn't say anything. He was struck with a sudden thought, a sudden hope, that maybe Percy was right. That Percy _was_ right.

Percy patted Leo on the shoulder. "Well, I'm goin' to bed, man." He walked off towards his cabin, and then stopped. "Think about it, Leo."

And Leo Valdez did think.

He thought and thought.

He thought about his importance, how he steered people in certain directions, even if they weren't all the ones that people wanted.

But hey, that's what steering wheels do.

And Leo Valdez was the steering wheel.

**Second one shot! Yay! I know it's short, but I still hope you love it! FEEL THE DEEPNESS! **

**Peace and all that other stuff.**

**~XxxXGreek GeekXxxX**


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